Once again we have a Latin American newspaper, this one in Colombia, highlighting our nation’s imperial past in regard to Ukraine, although this time, Russia does not emerge unscathed.
How much of a difference is there between the imperialism espoused by Vladmir Putin’s Russia, and the one possessed and denied by the United States? For Colombia’s Semenal, columnist Antonio Caballero writes, ‘since the collapse of communism, both have been stripped of their masks, leaving them almost nakedly imperial. Russia can no longer portray itself as a promoter of the socialist revolution, nor can the United States disguise itself as the defender of freedom. Each has been reduced to the promotion and defense of their respective national interests.’
For Semenal, Antonio Caballero starts off this way:
Barack Obama, usually so careful with his rhetoric, let slip an unfortunate phrase a few days ago. At a press conference after criticizing Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the U.S. President said, “You know, we (the United States) have considerable influence on our neighbors. We generally don’t need to invade them in order to have a strong cooperative relationship with them.”
“Generally” not? The United States has invaded its neighbors in the Americas at least 29 times during its brief slightly over two century history, starting with its failed attempt to annex Canada in 1812 (even though before that, it had had its eye on Mexico, and before the war against slavery, on Haiti). Then, after a pause dedicated to eradicating the enemy within – the native Indian tribes, came a list, as the crow flies, of countries to invade.
Following the declaration of the Monroe Doctrine [1850] on the divine right of the United States to rule the entire hemisphere, the first large-scale invasion was of Mexico in 1846, after which half the country was seized (what is today Texas and California). In 1855 came the occupation of Nicaragua and neighboring countries El Salvador and Honduras in order to reestablish slavery [the filibusters].
In 1898 followed the occupation of Cuba, which included the conquest of Puerto Rico and the remote Philippine islands in the Spanish-American War. The takeover of Panama came in 1903. In 1904, the Dominican Republic. In 1906, Cuba again, in 1908, Panama again, and in 1910, Nicaragua once more.
Almost every year, between 1911 and 1927, there were invasions and either temporary or permanent occupations in parts of Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua. A respite followed until 1954: Guatemala. Then came fleeting interventions or interventions by proxy; such as the recruitment of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in 1961 by the CIA, local coups d’etats in Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala and Bolivia, the bloody 1973 coup d’etat in Chile organized by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; the coup d’etat of the Argentine generals; the invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada in 1983, and the bombardment of Panama City the same year.
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